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Posted by jim
December 09th, 2010 at 11:30am
under News from Minnesota

Wondering what the latest is from the Minnesota Library Futures Initiative? The Minnesota Library Futurists hit the ground running after the successful kickoff event with Michael Rogers and Christine Lind Hage on October 18th. The 23 participants have been busy getting to know one another, while also developing a plan for focus areas, upcoming meetings, and other logistics.

The Futurists will meet once a month as a large group to discuss, think, and learn about the following focus areas: collaboration, Minnesota in 2025, technology, marketing and promotion, education and information literacy, and organizational structure/physical and virtual spaces. At the end of the series, the group will revisit collaboration and look at Minnesota Libraries in 2025. The timeline will allow for careful examination of all topics, and will be flexible to construct outcomes.

The last meeting, held on November 19th, focused on collaboration in libraries. The guest speaker was Chris Olson, MELSA’s Executive Director. Olson shared tips for the collaborative process, and tied them to examples from his own collaborative work. The group would like to thank Olson for his contribution to the day. The remainder of the day was used to develop a plan for going forward. With the help of Facilitator, Donna Rae Scheffert, the Futurists agreed on the aforementioned focus areas, and assigned themselves to work on at least one of the seven focus areas. In addition, several internal workgroups, such as the Communications Committee and the Logistics Committee, have been created.

The group’s next meeting will be on December 10th at the St. Cloud Public Library. The focus for the day is Envisioning Minnesota in 2025. Prior to the meeting, participants are doing a little homework, and are reading and reflecting upon documents related to Minnesota’s projected demographics, economy, education, and politics.

The Futurists are in the process of developing a Minnesota Library Futures Initiative website and blog to be available to the public shortly after the December 10th meeting. An announcement will be sent via the listservs when the website and blog are available. The group encourages feedback from the library community and will provide an opportunity for this on the website. In the meantime, questions or requests for a Futurist speaker can be emailed to Jenny Turner at jennifer.turner@mnsu.edu.

The Futurists would like to thank the Steering Committee and the larger library community for their continued support. The Futurists are thankful for the opportunity to take part in this process, and also are cognizant of the responsibility that comes with it. More updates and information will be available soon.

Posted by jim
December 06th, 2010 at 17:00pm
under News from Minnesota

The Otto Bremer Foundation has made a $50,000, two-year commitment to the Library Foundation of Hennepin County to support its new role in coordinating the Library Friends groups in Hennepin County. This capacity building grant will support the development and strengthening of Friends groups at each of the 41 libraries in the Hennepin County system.

“The Library Foundation faces an unprecedented opportunity to transform library support in Hennepin County,” explains Stu Wilson, executive director. “We will use the funds to underwrite incorporation fees for new groups, web and database upgrades, print promotions and communications, training workshops, staffing and more with the goal of having all 41 Friends groups activated by early 2012.”

With the support of the Bremer Foundation grant, the Foundation’s goal is to further the creation of new Friends groups in the 15 Minneapolis libraries in the Hennepin County Library system. Additionally, the grant will provide much-needed resources to advance the missions of all 41 Friends groups county-wide working to provide increased financial support to their local libraries, serving as library ambassadors in their communities, and providing a local core of library volunteers.

In 2008, following the merger of the Hennepin County and the Minneapolis Public Library systems, the Library Foundation of Hennepin County and The Friends of the Minneapolis Public united to create a unified, dynamic library support organization. Prior to the consolidation, The Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library organization served as the singular Friends group for all public libraries in Minneapolis. In the County system, in addition to the Library Foundation, 26 local Friends groups operated independently. In the beginning of 2010, the Library Foundation was charged with a new role of coordinating the independent Friends groups – a role previously fulfilled by the Library. A stronger relationship between the Foundation and Friends is the next chapter in a rich history of library support.

Bremer’s mission to “assist people in achieving full economic, civic and social participation in and for the betterment of their communities” was an ideal fit with the role an active, organized Friends group can play in connecting patrons with the vast free resources and programs of the Hennepin County Library.

By Muna Hassan - Sun Newspapers

Published: Wednesday, December 1, 2010 4:04 PM CST

Best sellers, cook books, science fiction, teen and children's books are just some of the genres that will be available for the public to buy for $2 or less at library book sales throughout Hennepin county.

Library Friends Groups throughout Hennepin County will have book sales occurring with thousands of books on sale at each Hennepin County library. Seven book sales are remaining this year, with more scheduled through October 2011.

Some participating libraries include Oxboro Library and Penn Lake Library in Bloomington, Eden Prairie Library, Ridgedale Library in Minnetonka, Hopkins Library, Maple Grove Library, and Augsburg Park Library in Richfield. About half the books on sale come from donations from the community while the other half come from overstock at the library. All the proceeds of the book sales go to the library, but that is not the only reason for the sales.

"It's a two-fold," said Allen Maffit of Oxboro Library in Bloomington, "The first is to make money, but it's also about putting books in the hands of the community." The book sales are run by volunteers from the Library Friends Group of the specific library at which the book sale occurs. Friends groups work much like a PTA at a high school. They raise money for the library to put on free programming as well as to buy new books and shelving. Each library has a different collection of books, which adds to the diversity of the sales.

"It's a treasure chest of opportunities of things to find," said Rachel Fulkerson, Public Awareness and Communications Director of the Library Foundation of Hennepin County. At Oxboro Library, Maffit said hundreds of people come to each sale, with the possibility to sell thousands of books. With donations from all walks of life, some books may not be fit to sell, but Maffit said no books get thrown away during the process. If they can't be sold, they go to the free box.

"Nothing escapes," said Maffit. "Everything is taken home."

While the public can rent books from the library on a regular basis, the book sales allow people to own the books they really want, which, to some, is the most important part of the sales. "The best part is watching people come in and score the books they want to own," said Maffit.

A complete list of Library Friends Groups book sales is available online.

ALTAFF is seeking feedback from Friends of the Library groups to help shape the future of National Friends of Libraries Week. Library directors and library staff who work with Friends groups are also invited to respond to the short survey. Reponses will help determine whether to keep the celebration in October or move it to another time of the year, what additional resources and materials ALTAFF should develop, and how groups celebrate the event in their community. The survey will be open through December 15....

At its most recent meeting, the MALF Board of Directors unanimously voted to elect Chris Olson as its president; his term of office begins on January 1, 2011 and he will serve during a pivotal moment in MALF’s history.

As a board member, Olson has served MALF in a variety of ways during the past 20 years (Terms from 1990 – 1994; 1997 – 2007; and 2009 --). He has provided leadership to the organization as newsletter and website editor, membership manager and most recently in the futures planning process and as secretary pro tem. Olson is well known in the Minnesota library community through his work as the Executive Director for the Metropolitan Library Service Agency (MELSA) and for Cooperating Libraries in Consortium (CLIC). Olson also worked as the public information officer for the Lake Agassiz Regional Library in northwestern Minnesota, where he served as a staff liaison to the Friends groups in that region.

He is a former president of the Minnesota Library Association and has served as a councilor for the American Library Association. He also currently serves as an adjunct faculty member at St. Catherine University in the Masters of Library Science program.